Central Galactic Union
The Most Serene Republic of the Central Galactic Union is a republic which comprises the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy, commonly referred to simply as the Republic or the CGU from its acronym. It is a representative democracy composed of around 100 billion planets scattered throughout some 400 billion star systems, of which only 13% have been mapped and explored. The Central Galactic Union officially claims either direct rule or indirect hegemony over all of the star systems and worlds of the Milky Way Galaxy. As its name implies, it is ostensibly a union or federation of member worlds. In practice, the central government asserts a high degree of control and oversight onto the member worlds, which are organized into administrative units composed of several million planets. It is composed of 30 Administrative Sectors, 12 Colonial Sectors, 8 Military Districts, 4 Special Administrative Districts, and 20 Occupied Territories. These units administrate a total of 2,480,000,000 human-populated member planets, with many times more than this administrated directly by the central government with minimal or no human or alien settlement. These worlds contain a population of 232 trillion humans, 30 trillion free aliens, and 164 trillion servile aliens. The union also contains some 200 trillion sapient synthetic lifeforms, roughly four-fifths of whom are of human manufacture. All humans and human-made synthetic lifeforms are citizens, and only such persons can become citizens. The society of the CGU is hierarchical, with citizens at the apex of society, followed by free aliens and alien-made synthetic lifeforms, whom have limited rights and liberties, and with aliens and non-sapient synthetics at the bottom, having no rights or liberties. While all citizens are equally subject to the law, some citizens have privileges and responsibilities based upon certain legally-defined statuses. Being that it composes the Milky Way in its entirety, the CGU is the galaxy's most populous state, with the greatest cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity of any political entity known to history. It is the first state known to bring the entire Galaxy under the rule of a single government. It has the largest economy known, bringing together the economies of its member worlds. While the Union's economy as a whole is considered post-industrial and primarily commercial, its member worlds have economies that range from highly developed, service-oriented economies to industrialized worlds, to developing agrarian planets. Most worlds have self-sufficient economies, but many others are dependent upon imports and exports within a galactic network of trade and commerce. The Union came into being on 20 April 3275, in the aftermath of the Great War. Driven by the doctrines of National Humanism and Imperial Manifest Destiny, guided by the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, and led by Terran Emperor Maximilian Charles I, the united nations of the Interstellar Treaty Organization fought a war of conquest and unification which saw the abolition of the preceding interstellar empires and the reorganization of the galaxy under the Republic. The country's constitution was adopted ten days after its foundation after the Galactic Constitutional Convention crafted a draft and presented it to the provisional legislature. The constitution established the current unified government, abolished fractious political parties and organizations, and guaranteed fundamental civil rights to its citizenry. Name The official name of the state is the Most Serene Republic of the Central Galactic Union. The first part is an appellation granted to many republics throughout history, "Most Serene" referring specifically to the hopes for peace and harmony within the state. The latter is a derivation of the Republic's previous incarnation, the Central Galactic Confederation. The Confederation existed from 1 November 3270 to the adoption of the Union Constitution on 20 April 3275. As such, the Republic is often referred to as the Union, the Central Galactic Union, the Galactic Union, or the Galactic Republic in common speech, poetry, and even in official documents. The abbreviation "CGU" is often used for state offices and bureaus, and branches of the military. History Origins In the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd centuries, the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party developed and rose to power in the Terran Empire. The Party advocated a national programme of integralism, corporatism, socialism, and nationalism centred around the human race. Over time, this came to include synthetics built by humans, as these were deemed to have sufficient traits to be defined as human. The Party combated the forces of radical communism, reactionary conservatism, and pro-alien liberalism to become the most popular and powerful party in the Terran Empire, with significantly large branches in other states of the ISTO. The ideology of National Humanism appealed across a broad spectrum of voters, and became the dominant party of the Imperial Parliament in the mid-3200s, having already come to dominate colonial and provincial assemblies. From this tradition arose several leaders in the 3230s through 3260s, who constructed policy in the Empire towards a militaristic, industrialist, and nationalist paradigm which sought a cold war against both the Communist bloc and the xenocapitalist Free Interstellar Group of Nations. Among these were Frederick Rycon, Shannon McGrady, George Francis Rothschild, Henry Addington, and the young Crown Prince Maximilian. This culminated in the Great War, waged from 3265 to 3275, in which the Terran Empire and the other member nations of the ISTO defeated and conquered all other spacefaring nations of the Milky Way. Maximilian became Party leader in 3266 and Prime Minister not long afterwards. Starting in 3268, Emperor Maximilian Charles I of the Terran Empire directed the strategic operations of the ISTO successfully in an aggressive assault, gaining the political capital to push for greater unity between the allies. In 3270, they formed the Confederation of Human Nations, renamed the Central Galactic Confederation in 3271, as an international body to coordinate their economic and military resources beyond the constraints of the strategically-focused Interstellar Treaty alliance. The Confederation was guided by a Consular system of government, with the heads of state of the member nations forming a Board of Consuls, with Maximilian presiding as the Confederation's First Consul. The model of consular government would form one of the pillars of the Union's constitution. The legislative action of the CGC was carried out by a Confederate Assembly, which was dominated by the international coalition of National Humanist parties, with minority representation of various national-conservative parties. In February 3275, the war came to a decisive conclusion with the fall of Liberalis, the capital world of the United Suns government and the headquarters of the Free Interstellar Group of Nations, following a siege and orbital bombardment. In the following months, the National Humanist coalition in the Confederate Assembly proposed further measures of unification. A Constitutional Convention was chartered by the Assembly to draft a new constitution. On 30 March, the Assembly voted by a 90% majority to dissolve and abolish all member nations of the Confederation and divide them into autonomously-governed star systems. On 20 April, the Constitutional Convention submitted their final draft to the Assembly, which was passed unanimously. The galaxy was reorganized as the Central Galactic Union, a semi-federal republic. Provisional government The provisional government of the CGU set about ensuring that the constitution was able to be enforced and carried out. Designed to last until the January elections in 3276, the provisional government established the Council of Ministers, organized the military, and unified all social services under the aegis of a large bureaucracy. The provisional Congress consisted of the Confederate Assembly plus the hereditary nobles of the ISTO member states, most of whom were monarchies with distinct peerages. The provisional government period was one of the most difficult in the Union's history, despite lasting just over eight months, as it tested the transition from the multi-empire alliance of the ISTO and the Confederation to the unified Republic of the CGU. Maximilian was nominated and unanimously elected provisional Chancellor of the Union, and was voted Dictatorial powers by the provisional Congress in order to stabilize the republic and carry out any needed adjustments to the local laws to bring them into line with the burgeoning galaxy-wide code of law. Unifying the myriad of common law, civil law, and traditional law jurisdictions on populated worlds, colonies, and space habitats were a daunting challenge. The Administrative Act, promulgated on 3 May 3275, marked the most significant reform to galactic government. The member worlds and star systems of the Union were grouped into administrative districts of differing types, each acting as the baseline unit of organization for pan-Galactic social services, defence, and judiciary. Military units were structured as having a particular administrative district as its area of responsibility. Each district was granted its own circuit courts of appeal. Trade and commerce commissions were organized for each district, as well a district-level administration for every service governed by the ministries. Each district was to be governed by a magistrate with the title of Consul. This limited the number of Consuls to just seventy-four individuals, not including the First Consul. The Constitution mandated the organization of a board of Consuls, nebulously defined as an "administrator of one of the federal constituent bodies", which was left undefined. Some argued the term was meant to imply planetary governors, some that it meant star system governors. In the end, the Administrative Act defined the term clearly, and set in place a hierarchy of sub-consular governing officials. The Council of Consuls met for the first time on 1 November 3275, as a component of the large Executive Council. Philip Rycon was appointed both First Consul and Prime Minister. Interwar period The first galaxy-wide elections were held on 3 January 3276. The general election filled the Congressional Senatorial seats and saw the appointment of Tribunes by election of their peers, including the election Senator Shannon McGrady as Chief Tribune. One day later, the Congress elected Maximilian Compton to his first constitutional 12-year term as Supreme Chancellor. He was again voted dictatorial powers by Congress; however, Chancellor Maximilian has rarely used them except in emergency peacekeeping situations. The 1st Central Galactic Congress convened with its full membership of Senators, Tribunes, and Peers on 1 February. Colonial insurrections, alien remnant forces, and a communist insurgency were threats to galactic peace and were dealt with accordingly by the Armed Forces and the newly-expanded Security Forces. The Outer Rim Insurrection of 3279 was put down with appropriate use of force in Operation Crassus. State Security generals Brian Kessar and Victor Peiper earned numerous decorations for their command of armoured forces in the conflict, and State Security marshal William McGrady was created a Baron for his able management of the Security Forces in the conflict. General Admiral Charles Wilkins Taylor was appointed Chief of Space Operations due to his valorous conduct of space combat forces. However, as this occurred in the Occupied Territories, it was viewed as a natural consequence of pacifying a conquered area of space. Rather, the internal stability and confidence in the Republic was shaken in the summer of 3280 with the violent Keystone Incident. A coordinated nuclear terror attack by colonial insurgents on major population centres on the planet Keystone, followed by systematic hacking and deorbiting of the planet's satellite defence and communications network, plunged the planet into chaos and civil war. Only the timely arrival of Space Forces and State Security troops, assisted by existing State Security intelligence agents, stabilized Keystone and put down the insurgency. The Colonial Bureau instituted a free democratic election on the planet to replace its slain governor. This would prove to be a boon to restoring stability, and inspired the passage of the Local Government Act of 3282, which instituted gubernatorial elections for all administrative and colonial worlds, provided their planetary assemblies approved through legislation. Today, roughly a third of qualified worlds in the Union elect their governors by simple-majority popular referendum. The rest are governed by appointed magistrates. Occupied territories and military provinces are statutorily excluded from the provisions of the Local Government Act, and can only be governed by appointed military or Security Forces officials. The Act served to provide stability to worlds which had some resentment towards centrally-administered government, allowing people to have a say in their local governments beyond planetary or system-wide assemblies. Other legislation formed in the aftermath of the Keystone Incident as well, such as the Antiterrorism Act, which enabled the Republic Security Department to deploy three-person teams to conduct executive tribunals of suspected threats to the immediate security and peace of the Republic, at all levels.